A blog about the work lawyers do to win commercial disputes by Will Newman
New York courts allow a plaintiff to sue someone who receives an invoice without objecting to it. Unlike a traditional breach of contract action, an “account stated” action just is limited to whether the invoice was delivered and whether the defendant objected.
Read MoreAfter a bench trial concludes, each side will have a copy of all of the exhibits that came into evidence and a transcript of all of the testimony. Instead of relying on the judge to comb through all of that evidence to decide what the facts are, the parties will do that themselves and then present the judge with “proposed findings of fact.”
Read MoreEvery organization should have a formal data incident response plan, but most can be simplified to one overarching element: call your cybersecurity counsel immediately. This puts your best player on the field in the first minute of the game. In doing so, you can establish an attorney-client privileged communication channel at the outset. Your outside counsel will serve as your advisor and concierge, coordinating the incident response.
Read MoreThere are not many special courts in Sweden. Many judges have to handle both commercial cases, but also crime and family law.
Read MoreSince litigation is expensive, many people rely on their insurance carriers to assume the costs of a lawsuit. But insurance often contains exceptions to coverage, there are often lawsuits to determine whether the insurer is obligated to defend.
Read MoreAmicus briefs are still formal documents, not just a comment in a website’s comments section. This means that, even though a brief may nominally come from a person or organization, it is really written by a lawyer and in the style of a legal argument. The brief must explain who the “amicus” (the “friend of the court” who is offering the brief) is, why they have an interest in the case, and then set forth the amicus’s argument.
Read MoreI sometimes work with private investigators who call and meet with people to learn more about the subjects of an investigation. And sometimes I do this work myself, picking up the phone or writing emails, contacting people who may have helpful information.
Read MoreA trial may drag on for awhile, and so the closing statement gives a lawyer the chance to get the fact finder to recall important evidence from the beginning of the trial. And to assign some weight to the evidence: a witness who spoke for three days may not be more important than the one who spoke for an hour, and so the closing statement lets the lawyer spend more time on the important details and convey to others the relative importance of evidence.
Read MoreThe 2022 reforms to the justice system includes the establishment of a Commercial Court which was approved in Parliament in May 2022. The Commercial Court will be comprised of judges with experience in commercial matters. It will examine cases involving “commercial disputes” relating to claims over €2.000.000, but in addition, irrespective of the amount in dispute, the Commercial Court will have jurisdiction to also hear all matters relating to competition law, intellectual property, and arbitration.
Read MoreOnce a lawsuit is over, a plaintiff may face obstacles in trying their same lawsuit again. Courts respect the principle of res judicata, which means that once a case is decided, the decision is binding in future lawsuits. But still, some litigants test the limits of what that means.
Read MoreIn some situations, the law will impose “strict liability” on a defendant. This means that, if a plaintiff is injured, it does not matter whose fault it is. This is meant to give manufacturers an incentive to make their products so safe that the risk of any injury, even one they could claim is not their fault, is low.
Read MoreA few years ago, I wrote posts about technology and the law and about how litigation is depicted on television. As kind of a mash-up of these posts, I asked Google Bard to write a blog post about litigation on television. And, to my surprise, the post was actually pretty insightful. So I’m sharing that post and my commentary on it and on legal insights written by AI.
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